{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-perverted-village",
 "title": "The Perverted Village",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "book_slug": "black-beetles-in-amber",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 54,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1892,
  "venue": "Black Beetles in Amber (1892)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12658",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12977",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15599",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof08bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/literarycalifor05mighgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cali07webb"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20",
  "corrections": [
   {
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    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
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 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 2
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 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Sweet Auburn! liveliest village of the plain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Health and Slander welcome every train,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Whence smiling innocence, its tribute paid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Retires in terror, wounded and dismayed⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear lovely bowers of gossip and disease,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose climate cures us that thy dames may tease,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How often have I knelt upon thy green",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And prayed for death, to mitigate their spleen!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How often have I paused on every charm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With mingled admiration and alarm⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The brook that runs by many a scandal-mill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The church whose pastor groans upon the grill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The cowthorn bush with seats beneath the shade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where hearts are struck and reputations flayed;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How often wished thine idle wives, some day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might more at whist, less at the devil, play.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Unblest retirement! ere my life’s decline",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Killed by detraction) may I witness thine.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How happy she who, shunning shades like these,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Finds in a wolf-den greater peace and ease;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who quits the place whence truth did earlier fly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rather than come back prefers to die!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For her no jealous maids renounce their sleep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Contriving malices to make her weep;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No iron-faced dames her character debate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And spurn imploring mercy from the gate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But down she lies to a more peaceful end,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For wolves do not calumniate, but rend⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sinks piecemeal to their maws, a willing prey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While resignation lubricates the way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all her prospects brighten at the last:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To wolves, not women, an approved repast.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}